


Dogs Kill Cats Kill Dogs

by paradiamond



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Arguing, Driving fic, F/F, F/M, a Jughead and Cheryl frenemy showdown, background pairings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 14:18:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12937068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradiamond/pseuds/paradiamond
Summary: As the significant others of the Betty and Veronica dream team, Jughead and Cheryl end up stuck in a car together for an extended period of time. Between fundamental personality differences and legitimate issues between them, Jughead thinks that one of them might actually die.





	Dogs Kill Cats Kill Dogs

“Uh huh,” Jughead murmured into the phone as he paced the length of the school parking lot, already irritated. It was cold, the kind of cold that would mean snow if they weren’t still in some weird winter drought. The last snow had melted away weeks ago, leaving them frozen and bare. “Yeah, I get it Bets. I’m just saying, this had better be worth it.” 

Across the line, Betty sighed. “I know, I’m sorry.” 

He stepped over one of the few slush puddles left, full of filthy grey mud. “Very sorry.” 

“Very sorry,” Betty repeated dutifully, and he could hear the sound of dozens of girls in the background, all talking excitedly. “And Veronica is sorry too.” 

Jughead scowled and switched his phone to his other, not so frozen hand. “No, she isn’t.” 

“Well-” 

“This is her fault!” Jughead hissed, pointedly ignoring the way Cheryl was openly watching him from inside the car parked a few dozen feet away. The one he had borrowed from his foster mom for definitely _not_ this purpose. 

The Vixens had flourished under Veronica’s leadership, resulting in an out of state Cheerleading Tournament. It was the ultimate school spirit check box. The blue ribbon in inanity. Principle Weatherby and the Major were thrilled, throwing anything and everything the team could want at them in a desperate move to distract the town, including a bus and rooms in the convention center two cities over. 

Never in his life had Jughead cared about cheerleading, not even for Betty, but the opportunity to get away from Riverdale with her was too good to pass up. Then Veronica intervened. Apparently, even though Cheryl was no longer a part of the Vixens, she was a part of Veronica’s life and she just _had_ to be there, and fun fact, it was suddenly his problem. 

“Juggie…” Betty made a placating noise over the line that actually sort of worked. Jughead let his shoulders drop, and stopped pacing. 

“I can’t believe- fine. But if only one of us shows up it’s not my fault!”

“It’ll be fine!” Betty was still saying when he hung up. Not exactly nice, but letting her friend dump _Cheryl_ of all people on him like this wasn’t nice either. 

Jughead turned on his heels, pissed off again and already feeling a little guilty for hanging up on her, and immediately met Cheryl’s eye from across the mostly empty lot. She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him, and he forwned back, stuffing both hands into his pockets to make his way back across the frozen parking lot. 

No one had really been sure how to deal with Cheryl ever, but especially not now that she was Veronica’s maybe girlfriend and daughter of the never forgotten Killer, and Jughead didn’t like being forced to figure it out all at once in an enclosed space. Getting away from the Cheryl Blossoms of the world had been one good thing about leaving Riverdale high. Now he was back, with her, at seven in the morning on a Saturday. He jammed his hands into his pockets and kept walking, trying to ignore her eyes on him. 

He glared, and she didn’t blink. Creepy, as always. As far as he knew, no one had really talked to Cheryl directly about how she burned down her own house, and he wasn't about to be the one to start, but it was all he could think of as he slid into the driver's seat, headache already forming. 

As soon as he had the door closed, she started in. “Alright. Listen, Jameson.”

“Wow, right out the gate,” Jughead muttered, jamming the keys back into the ignition. 

Cheryl blinked at him, her big fake eyelashes fluttering like bug’s wings. “What?”

“It’s Jughead,” he ground out, as politely as possible. “Which I know you know, you’ve called me by my name befo-” 

“Whatever, it’s a power play.” Cheryl flipped her hair over her shoulder and settled back against the seat, which she had already complained about when she got in. Shockingly, nothing about the car was nice enough for her. “Point being, I know I can be a lot to handle sometimes,” she said, and then just stared at him, all wide eyes and doll makeup. 

Jughead frowned at her, gripping the steering wheel so hard his joints hurt. “Are you...waiting for me to deny that? Because I’m really not going to-”

“Ugh,” Cheryl said, like it was a word. “Fine, be the asshole.”

She pointedly faced front and started texting, her long fingernails clicking on the screen. The silence stretched between them, threatening to snap as Jughead continued to stare at her in disbelief. But they had so long to go and they hadn’t even started yet. So he turned himself forward and started the car, determined to get the entire experience over with as quickly as humanly possible. 

***

The landscape rolled by, that blank part of the map in between dots. Riverdale was a small dot, set out and to the side of the state. They were going to a bigger dot, Brightberg City, more centralized, but far, and in between? Not much. The lack of stimulation mixed with the poor cell services soon proved to be too much for Cheryl. 

“How’s your dad? He’s in jail, right?” 

Jughead tightened his grip on the steering wheel, again, and kept his eyes on the road. It had become his go-to already, the pain grounding. They had only been going for about half an hour. 

“Yeah, ok. Good. I think he’s really enjoying it,” he said, as sarcastically as possible. 

Cheryl hummed, content for now with her cheap shot, and put her feet up on the dash. 

Jughead glanced over and then back at the road. If it was Betty he would have batted her feet away. If it was Archie he would have swerved and made him flail. 

He cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t do that.”

“And yet I’m going to anyway. Besides, what do you care if my legs get shattered?”

Jughead shook his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. Cheryl just hummed again, apparently pleased with herself. She was dark, which normally he understood, but it was a bleak, disturbing darkness. A void rather than a deep pool. Not what he was used to. 

Of course, the silence didn’t last long. “You could be nicer, you know.” 

He rolled his eyes, and wished, not for the first time, that he could just drown her out. But the radio didn’t work and the car had been made in that brief period in between the death of cassettes and birth of aux cables, so it only had a CD player. Jughead had checked, and the two CDs in the car were radio Disney 2001, for his foster mother’s youngest, he assumed, and Michael Jackson, which was hers. He didn’t bring either of them up to Cheryl. Besides, silence was golden, when he could get it. Jughead glanced over and then back at the road, determined to ignore her. 

Cheryl apparently didn’t care. “I tried being nice to you. I gave you my broach didn’t I?” 

As an apology, he thought, dragging them through an intersection a little too fast. Apparently not a very sincere one. It sparked a deep kind of resentment in him, part fear and part anger. He didn’t owe her anything. She couldn’t throw presents around and then expect to own him. 

He pressed his lips together, hard, and breathed in deep, twice. Then he nodded. “You can have it back.” 

“Fine,” she sighed, and held out her hand. 

He glanced over and then frowned. “Well I don’t just carry it around with me!” 

“Then why would you bring it up!”

“I was just- put your feet on the floor!” 

Cheryl did, dropping them down so hard the car rattled. 

They sat in blessed silence for a few long minutes, Jughead counting the seconds until it broke again. He kept his eyes fixed on the road, paying attention to speed limits, road signs, weird vanity license plates. Betty. He thought about Betty. She was safe. 

“So your dad-”

“Can we not talk about that?” Jughead asked, making a sharp turn. “Thanks.”

“No, I think I want to.”

“Why would- oh are you jealous?” Jughead asked, trying to tap into his inner terrifying rich bitch. Let her get a taste of her own medicine for once. “Because my dad is alive and in prison and yours killed himself?”

“No! Of course not,” she hissed at him, but when he turned to glare at her and saw she was tearing up.

Jughead leaned back to his side of the car as much as physically possible, panicked and trying to stay in his lane at the same time. A car passed them fast, the driver glaring. “I- uh. Sorry.” 

They sat in the non-silence of Cheryl trying and failing to pretend not to cry for the longest minute of Jughead’s life. He braced one elbow against the door and focused on steering until he pulled up at a red light. He stopped the car and sighed. “Look, Cheryl-”

But she was already wrenching the door open and bolting out, running across the right lane of traffic and disappearing into the trees. Jughead stared after her, mouth open. 

A horn blared, then another. The light was green. Jughead whipped around to gesture erratically to the car behind him. “I’m obviously- did you not see that!” 

Cars continued to honk at him as he cut across the intersection, with the passenger side door still open, to get to the shoulder of the road, pulling over halfway into the guardrail he’d just seen her leap over like it was nothing. Stupid cheerleading. 

He leaned all the way over to the other side of the car to jerk her door closed and then ripped the keys out of the ignition so hard he dropped them, heart pounding and coldly furious at the prospect of having to go traipsing through the woods after Cheryl Blossom of all people. But he had to. Veronica would kill him, and Cheryl didn't exactly have a great track record with being alone in the woods. Even the thought of it made his throat start to close up, seeing her disappear under the water, frantically searching through the ice. 

Swearing under his breath, Jughead jerked the door open and jumped out, slamming it behind him as he climbed over the rail and took off into the trees. 

***

Jughead wasn’t made for the woods. He had no sense of direction for trees and snow and nothing else. For the first few minutes, he kept sight of the road, making sure it stayed right at his back. That had run out after about ten minutes. Jughead turned, then regretted it, forgetting almost immediately which trees were supposed to be where. 

He bent over at the waist, furious and out of breath. Running was also something he wasn’t made for. It was why he never went to gym. Fear gripped him, then released. He shook himself, irritated. Worse case scenario, he has to spend an uncomfortable few hours in the woods. Cheryl wasn't actually going to do anything to herself. She was probably at the car already, waiting for him. 

He scowled, plowing forward. She wouldn’t wait for long. Someone would pick her up, a pretty girl needing help, and they probably wouldn’t even murder her, since that was just how her life was. Lucky in the little things, rich and shiny on the outside, and rotten at the center. 

A sound caught his attention, an instinct bubbling up. Jughead turned, scanning the trees, slow this time. 

“Hey!” Jughead yelled when he finally spotted her, red on white, half hidden by a tree. She whipped around, red hair flying in a wave, glaring like he’d burst into her bedroom uninvited. 

“What,” she ground out, sounding about ready to kill him. It was a far cry from her bizarre sweetness from the past few weeks, walking on eggshells around everyone at Pop’s, smiling like a crazy person as Veronica held her hand under the booth. 

He curled his hands into fists, determined to stay calm. “Come back.” 

She scoffed. “Why? So we can go to the cheerleading tournament? What a joke.” 

“Yeah, Cheryl, it’s dumb. But we have to go.” 

Cheryl tipped her chin up. “Fine, go.” 

Jughead gaped at her, at a loss. The her face twisted, and she screamed. “Loser!” Cheryl looking cracked, her eyes wild. “What do you even want?” 

“I want you to get back in the car!” Jughead yelled back, trying to cover for how badly she’d made him jump. 

“Why?” she sneered at him. “I know you’re all just waiting for Veronica to get tired of me so I’ll go away.” 

That was particularly hard to argue with, mostly because it was true, and Jughead was a fundamentally honest person. So he just punched back.

“You don't want to be our friend anyway! You hate us!”

Cheryl exploded. “How would I know! Veronica is the only one who ever, ever tried!” 

Jughead glowered. “Ok well, she didn't have twelve years of you tormenting her to-”

Cheryl screamed again, this time one long, high sound, because apparently that had worked for her in the past. 

“Even when you’re trying to be nice, you’re mean!” Jughead yelled back, not wanting to let it work again, continuing to rise his voice over her noise. “Yeah, Cheryl! I realize you literally just pretended not to know my name but I've been in your class for-” 

“Stop yelling at me!”

Jughead rocked back like he'd been slapped. “You- you're the one screaming!”

Cheryl wiped at her face, getting her makeup everywhere. “This is so stupid. I never should have arranged for this.”

Jughead’s eyebrows shot up. “What? What do you-”

Cheryl threw up her hands. “News flash, idiot! I could have rented a car service!”

Jughead ground his teeth. “Cheryl I swear to god if you keep interrupting me-”

Cheryl’s head snapped up, all bright eyed and suddenly, bizarrely, still. “What? You'll do what?”

Jughead closed his mouth with a snap. It was uncomfortably close to his own defense, his go-to with his dad when he would get too drunk or with anyone else who threatened him. 

What are you going to do? He asked Archie once, a dare. What? Hit me? He never did. Did Cheryl’s dad? Jughead looked away. 

They lapsed into awful, uncomfortable silence, the press of the forest all around them. None of the trees had leaves, their branches skeletal in the weird winter light. He saw a squirrel spot him and freeze before taking off again, minding its own business. He had no idea where the car was. They were going to miss the stupid tournament. 

“Ok, look,” Jughead said, grasping at straws. “I don’t know what has you this upset-” 

“Oh you don’t?” Cheryl shot back. “I thought you were supposed to be smart.” 

He folded his arms across his chest and looked up, towards the tops of the trees, and counted to ten. Slowly. 

When he looked back down, Cheryl was watching him intently. “What?” 

“What,” she parroted, and crossed her arms too. “I shouldn’t have to tell you.” 

“Then don’t, I don’t care. But let’s just get to the convention center, alright? Betty and Veronica are waiting for us.” 

Cheryl pursed her lips. Then she dropped her arms. “Fine.” 

Jughead blinked, shocked. “Really?” 

She stalked past him, hopefully back towards the road. 

*** 

They rode in silence for miles, Jughead picking through their every interaction and trying to figure out what had set her off. It wasn’t just her dad. Much as he didn’t want to care, his inherent born curiosity couldn’t let it lie. The real issue was that there was a lot that bothered Cheryl, and some of it was pretty understandable. 

Betty would know. She’d look at Cheryl and know right away, she was so good with people. Jughead only knew facts, but at least he knew a lot of about Cheryl. 

Murdered brother, crazy mother, criminal father. He picked at the cracked plastic on the steering wheel. One sibling and two parents, sort of. Messed up. He could work with that. 

The landscape rolled by, gradually becoming more and more suburban. More buildings, more cars. There was snow here too, piled on the sides of the road like bumpers. Jughead tapped his fingers softly against the steering wheel, listening to the rumble of the engine. Betty wouldn’t like the noise. Veronica wouldn’t like the car anymore than Cheryl did. Cheryl didn’t like him. That was obvious. That was probably the problem. He was the issue for her. 

“It’s the book, right?” 

Cheryl’s head snapped up so fast he head a sound come out of her neck. Pleased, Jughead pushed back against the seat, stretching as best her could in the small space. “I see.” 

He could feel her eyes on him, but he didn’t turn. 

“My family is not your playground.” Her voice was quiet, serious in a way he didn’t usually hear. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her rub the back of her hand over her face. She sniffed. “You didn’t even know him.”

It was a point, but not a particularly compelling one from his perspective. There was no such thing as privacy, not really, and especially not with something like this. People deserved to know. It was, however, something of an opportunity. 

“Ok, look,” he glanced over at her. “What if I gave you-”

“Veto power?” she asked, breathlessly. 

Jughead blinked. “Uh, no.” 

“Then-”

“Input, Cheryl. You can have input.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Or I could just get rid of it.”

“Mother of- no you can't.” He stopped at a red light, watching her warily. “There's no point in destroying my computer either, it's in the cloud.” 

Or at least it would be tomorrow. 

Cheryl looked away and sniffed again. “I wouldn't break your laptop anyway, you’re poor.”

“Cheryl.” 

“What! I was being nice!”

“No, you weren't!”

“Ok fine.” Cheryl put her hands up. “Input.”

***

When they finally got there, very late, Cheryl ran straight to Veronica, who immediately started petting her hair and nodding a lot. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Barely. 

Jughead went to Betty, who smiled guiltily at him. 

“So, you survived,” she said, immediately stepping into the circles of his arms. He tugged, just a bit, and she came even closer, arms hooked around the small of his back. 

“Barely,” he answered, loud enough for everyone to hear. Betty sent him a fake stern look, clearly trying not to smile, and Veronica scowled at him. 

But he caught Cheryl’s eye as she started to leave the room, her arm hooked over Veronica’s. Betty hummed, a low, concerned sound, but Jughead kept her gaze, and Cheryl nodded at him right before they passed out of view.

**Author's Note:**

> I love these babies. 
> 
> paradiamond.tumblr.com :)


End file.
